Hello all,
Today I had a very bad experience with stage magic and I thought that I would share with you guys what I did wrong so that hopefully if you guys ever take the step from small groups to a huge performance, you guys can learn from my mistake. They say that life is too short to learn from your own mistakes.
I was asked to perform at a wedding by some friends of mine. First I said no because they asked for 15 mintues as opposed to 30 minutes. Then I changed my mind to yes because I thought, heck I think I could do something.
First effect - Power Reel. I tried to ask the venue if I could show up the night before to set up but they would not allow me. Thus I had to prepare the day of the wedding. They kept pusing me around and then they said I could set up during the reception where most of the people would be somewhere else. They weren't. Kids kept playing with my wires and the Power reel gimmick is EXTREMLY finnicky it self. Bottom line, the reel failed because it jammed on itself during set up. I fell on my face. There was great shame.
Lesson learned - only set this up when you have full and complete control of the stage. If there are questions, then don't risk it.
Second - The rope routine where three ropes are small medium and large and they end up as the same size. It went well for a stage. I should have practiced more from Fiber Optics though in case you have extra time, you are ready for more routines.
Third - Airborne with any bottle. It went pretty well. As I poured, I pointed at some guy and said "Hey don't I know you from somewhere?". Lesson learned, the gimmick can be caught on itself and be seen from a short distance so make sure you are pretty far away from the crowd. If you need to, step further away.
Fourth - Distortion, always a crowd pleaser. I just performed it the way Cyril performed it and it always gives a good reaction
Fifth - Snow Storm - Never performed it, I got so nervous I skipped it.
sixth- In Half - PLEASE really really really know the layout for this. A few people sneeked to the outer side and caught a glimpse of how it was done, shame on me i know. The Gimmick collapsed a little on itself and revealed something. ALWAYS BUILD IT ON SITE IF POSSIBLE. FOLDING THE GIMMICK WEAKENS IT.
I think my main pit fall in this was not preparing enough and not being aggressive enough setting up at the Venue.
If I had to do it again, I would make sure I get ALL (not some) of my materials by 1 week in advance AND be allowed full access to the venue the day before. If you cannot, than switch to doing table hopping magic instead. I think this would have solved all if not most of my issues.
Hope this helps for some people and I hope you guys avoid the same mistakes I did.
Today I had a very bad experience with stage magic and I thought that I would share with you guys what I did wrong so that hopefully if you guys ever take the step from small groups to a huge performance, you guys can learn from my mistake. They say that life is too short to learn from your own mistakes.
I was asked to perform at a wedding by some friends of mine. First I said no because they asked for 15 mintues as opposed to 30 minutes. Then I changed my mind to yes because I thought, heck I think I could do something.
First effect - Power Reel. I tried to ask the venue if I could show up the night before to set up but they would not allow me. Thus I had to prepare the day of the wedding. They kept pusing me around and then they said I could set up during the reception where most of the people would be somewhere else. They weren't. Kids kept playing with my wires and the Power reel gimmick is EXTREMLY finnicky it self. Bottom line, the reel failed because it jammed on itself during set up. I fell on my face. There was great shame.
Lesson learned - only set this up when you have full and complete control of the stage. If there are questions, then don't risk it.
Second - The rope routine where three ropes are small medium and large and they end up as the same size. It went well for a stage. I should have practiced more from Fiber Optics though in case you have extra time, you are ready for more routines.
Third - Airborne with any bottle. It went pretty well. As I poured, I pointed at some guy and said "Hey don't I know you from somewhere?". Lesson learned, the gimmick can be caught on itself and be seen from a short distance so make sure you are pretty far away from the crowd. If you need to, step further away.
Fourth - Distortion, always a crowd pleaser. I just performed it the way Cyril performed it and it always gives a good reaction
Fifth - Snow Storm - Never performed it, I got so nervous I skipped it.
sixth- In Half - PLEASE really really really know the layout for this. A few people sneeked to the outer side and caught a glimpse of how it was done, shame on me i know. The Gimmick collapsed a little on itself and revealed something. ALWAYS BUILD IT ON SITE IF POSSIBLE. FOLDING THE GIMMICK WEAKENS IT.
I think my main pit fall in this was not preparing enough and not being aggressive enough setting up at the Venue.
If I had to do it again, I would make sure I get ALL (not some) of my materials by 1 week in advance AND be allowed full access to the venue the day before. If you cannot, than switch to doing table hopping magic instead. I think this would have solved all if not most of my issues.
Hope this helps for some people and I hope you guys avoid the same mistakes I did.
